The festival of foreign successes continues at the Giro, the fast for Italian victories extends to 15 stages: even in Bergamo the music has not changed. The winner in a sprint with a high density of big names was the Luxembourgian Bob Jungels, pink jersey on Etna, at the end of a stage where adrenaline was not lacking but will be remembered for a gesture of great elegance by Tom Dumoulin, who would have could – but didn't – unleash the tussle when Quintana slid to the ground in a nasty curve on the descent of Passo del Miragolo.
Dumoulin has even ordered his team to slow down. A fair play that happens in today's cycling more often than in the cycling of the past when people even organized themselves to give the victim the kappao. In 1955 in the San Pellegrino stage Magni teamed up with Coppi to win the Giro when he saw Nencini's pink jersey put his foot on the ground due to a puncture.
In 1957 Louison Bobet organized an ambush for Gaul in the pink jersey, who had stopped to pee at the foot of Bondone, the mountain which the year before had exalted the great Luxembourg climber in the storm: the two swore hatred from that day on eternal, Gaul lost the Giro but did everything and succeeded in not letting the Frenchman win, helping Nencini who made up for the prank of two years earlier.
We don't know whether Quintana thanked the Dutchman on the run. Certainly he was able to rejoin the group easily on the ascent of Selvino to then play for the chance of time bonuses in the sprint: and the Colombian surprisingly managed to finish behind Jungels, preceding Thibaut Pinot and thus gaining the six seconds at stake. A trifle that can be useful in the final computation of the Giro. We don't know if Dumoulin liked it.
After the Dutch pink jersey, increasingly authoritative and self-confident, he said he was convinced he had acted as he should, because he doesn't like beating his opponents when they fall to the ground. And if Quintana was pardoned, others risked the worst by braking or bypassing the Movistar flagship at the last minute, which had stopped just around a bend to assist the Condor.
It's not the first time that José Luis Arrieta, team manager of Movistar, risks getting into trouble with his car: at the top of the Blockhaus, while he was being interviewed after Quintana's success, his car started moving dangerously downwards: he had forgotten to apply the handbrake.
An eventful stage, with many falls (with important withdrawals from Tanel Kangert to Caleb Ewan), high-speed racing, with a natural selection that at the end of the Selvino descent, with its suggestive hairpin bends similar to gigantic shoelaces, saw headed the group of the best who also caught up with Rolland and Sanchez, survivors of the last five-man breakaway, and then detached them on the final ramp on the cobblestones of the Boccola in Bergamo Alta.
At a certain point, in the brawl in the city, Nibali attempted a draw, imitated by Pinot but Dumoulin kept a relentless guard, repelling all attacks: in the end, all the top ten in the classification found themselves competing for the sprint with Quintana placing his chip behind Jungels. Unfortunately, only Tanel Kangert was missing, whose Giro had finished a few km earlier by slamming into the post of one of the many, too many traffic dividers that make the roads treacherous for cyclists, wherever you go. Fractured elbow and farewell to the race for the Estonian who had become the leader of Astana after the tragic death of Scarponi.
Today for the Giro third Monday of rest before starting again tomorrow in the stage which does not allow for mistakes: Mortirolo and the Stelvio twice, over 5 thousand meters to climb, an impressive altitude. The Giro is up for grabs in Bormio. A goal, that of Bormio, which recalls epic feats but also a famous pact broken in 1953, the fifth and last pink triumph of Fausto Coppi. The day before, the Campionissimo had won the stage in the Dolomites which ended in Bolzano by beating the Swiss Hugo Koblet in the pink jersey.
An order of arrival resulting from an agreement between the two champions: a stage in Coppi and a Giro in Koblet which by now seemed unbeatable even if the Stelvio was missing. But the day after Koblet went into crisis and Coppi, even against his will, left the Swiss with the excuse of chasing Pasqualino Fornara, who had taken the lead. And the great Fausto on the snowy bends of the legendary Alpine pass performed one of his memorable exploits. Koblet didn't say goodbye to him when he crossed paths with him in the evening in Bormio but the next day the Swiss admitted his defeat, like the gentleman he was, saying that he had been beaten by the greatest rider of all time.
